_________________________________________
/ A certain monk had a habit of pestering \
| the Grand Tortue (the only one who had  |
| ever reached the Enlightenment 'Yond    |
| Enlightenment), by asking whether       |
| various objects had Buddha-nature or    |
| not. To such a question Tortue          |
| invariably sat silent. The monk had     |
| already asked about a bean, a lake, and |
| a moonlit night. One day he brought to  |
| Tortue a piece of string, and asked the |
| same question. In reply, the Grand      |
| Tortue grasped the loop between his     |
| feet and, with a few simple             |
| manipulations, created a complex string |
| which he proferred wordlessly to the    |
| monk. At that moment, the monk was      |
| enlightened.                            |
|                                         |
| From then on, the monk did not bother   |
| Tortue. Instead, he made string after   |
| string by Tortue's method; and he       |
| passed the method on to his own         |
\ disciples, who passed it on to theirs.  /
 -----------------------------------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||